3. Understand the Echo Chamber Effect of Social Media and Make a Habit of Seeking Out a Wider Variety of Voices

An echo chamber or filter bubble is the result of website algorithms designed to determine which content you want to see and which you don’t, based on your past behavior and other information about you. Over time, the web content you see represents an increasingly narrow range of information and ideas, and you are exposed to fewer and fewer experiences, ideologies, and perspectives that differ from yours.

To get out of your own filter bubble:

Disable Google’s Personalized Search: Click “Settings” on the lower right of the Google search page, and select “History” from the menu. Click on “Activity Controls” from the left menu, then uncheck the box next to “Include Chrome browsing history and activity from websites and apps that use Google services.”

Seek Out Information From A Range of Credible Sources: Start by exploring some of the sources on the “Finding Reliable News” page of this guide.

To get a better sense of the range of opinions on a news topic, use AllSides, a news services that “exposes bias and provides multiple angles on the same story so you can quickly get the full picture, not just one slant.”